In the treatise On the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky divided the creation of art into three categories, the ultimate one of which is called Composition. In this article, I argue that Kandinsky’s classification is similar and comparable to the principle of semi-abstract Chinese freehand brushwork summarized by Zheng Xie in the Inscriptions on Painting - Bamboo. In an attempt to clarify the core of Kandinsky’s strategy of abstraction, i.e. the transformation from painting to writing, I then connect it with (...) the evolution of Chinese characters and the aesthetic theory of Chinese calligraphy, which is also in accord with Kandinsky’s idea of internal necessity and the spirit in art. Through this aesthetic dialogue across time and space, this article aims to bring a new dimension to the understanding of Western abstractionism from the perspective of the oriental philosophy of art. (shrink)

What we have learnt in the last six or seven decades about virtual machinery, as a result of a great deal of science and technology, enables us to offer Darwin a new defence against critics who argued that only physical form, not mental capabilities and consciousness could be products of evolution by natural selection. The defence compares the mental phenomena mentioned by Darwin’s opponents with contents of virtual machinery in computing systems. Objects, states, events, and processes in virtual machinery (...) which we have only recently learnt how to design and build, and could not even have been thought about in Darwin’s time, can interact with the physical machinery in which they are implemented, without being identical with their physical implementation, nor mere aggregates of physical structures and processes. The existence of various kinds of virtual machinery (including both “platform” virtual machines that can host other virtual machines, e.g. operating systems, and “application” virtual machines, e.g. spelling checkers, and computer games) depends on complex webs of causal connections involving hardware and software structures, events and processes, where the specification of such causal webs requires concepts that cannot be defined in terms of concepts of the physical sciences. That indefinability, plus the possibility of various kinds of self-monitoring within virtual machinery, seems to explain some of the allegedly mysterious and irreducible features of consciousness that motivated Darwin’s critics and also more recent philosophers criticising AI. There are consequences for philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and robotics. (shrink)

This paper discusses the creative project ‘Impossible Evolutions’, which uses generative machine learning models in the design of woven tapestries. This project is used as a conduit to unfold highly relational ways of thinking about the entanglements of human and machine assemblages within generative artificial intelligence. The project leverages interconnected ecological stories and the language of textiles to provide novel perspectives on the emerging relations between human and machine intelligences. The project uses Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and diffusion models to (...) imagine new iterations of endangered Australian butterflies and wildflowers. The generated images are composed into three textile weavings of place: tapestries of the interconnected lives that generate each creature’s ecosystem. By reflecting on the interweaving of conditions that has disrupted each ecological niche, space is opened to think about unseen sensory worlds (Richmond Birdwing butterfly), symbiotic exchange (Bulloak Jewel butterfly), and stewardship of the land (Sunshine Diuris orchid). Each story becomes a fabric both literal and metaphorical, with this ‘textillic thinking’ offering speculative vantage points for approaching artistic and social practice with ML models. Textillic thinking interweaves creativity, collaboration, and care: conditions which are foregrounded in textile-making practices and disrupted in each creature’s ecological story. The creative work is diffracted with the neomaterialism of Rosi Braidotti and Karen Barad, and with the notions of care offered by both Maria Puig de la Bellacasa and the Indigenous Protocol for Artificial Intelligence. Through this reading and practice, the project offers material language for discussing the processes and effects of ML, while emphasizing the responsibility of the human in their design. (shrink)

I reject Jackendoff's view of Universal Grammar as something that evolved biologically but applaud his integration of blackboard architectures. I thus recall the HEARSAY speech understanding system—the AI system that introduced the concept of “blackboard”—to provide another perspective on Jackendoff's architecture.

In this article, I use science-fiction scenarios drawn from Dan Simmons’ “Hyperion Cantos” (Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion) to explore a cluster of issues related to the evolutionary history and neural bases of human moral cognition, and the moral desirability of improving our ability to make moral decisions by techniques of neuroengineering. I begin by sketching a picture of what recent research can teach us about the character of human moral psychology, with a particular emphasis (...) on highlighting the importance of our evolutionary background as social mammals. I then consider how the moral psychology of intelligent machines might differ from our own, and argue that the differences would depend on the extent to which their evolutionary background resembled our own. I offer two very different case studies—the “Technocore AIs” that have evolved from early, parasitic computer programs, and the mysterious “Shrike,” who travels backward through time. I close by looking at the character of Aenea, a messianic figure that is a joint descendant of humans and machines. I argue that while the sort of “moral enhancement” she represents is far beyond the scope of either contemporary neuroscience or artificial intelligence research, it nevertheless represents a worthwhile goal. (shrink)

The ever-growing volume of scientific research challenges for traditional publishing models. This necessitates innovative approaches to journal editing and adopting by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in publication. This scoping review aims to explore the emerging trends shaping the field of journal editing by AI. Literature employed to search relevant databases published between 2008 and 2024. A total of 25 studies met the inclusion criteria. The review synthesizes key trends of inclusion of the technological tools integration for manuscript processing, the rise of (...) open-access publishing models, and evolving considerations around research ethics. The study underscores the pivotal role of emerging trends in shaping the future of scientific publishing. It offers valuable perspectives for editors to adeptly maneuver through the evolving terrain of scholarly communication. By suggesting possible best practices, it serves as a beacon for maintaining editorial excellence. Furthermore, it identifies critical domains warranting deeper exploration, thereby setting the stage for continuous advancement in the field. This forward-looking approach not only facilitates informed decision-making but also fosters a proactive stance towards embracing change in scientific discourse. (shrink)

Social robotics entertains a particular relationship with anthropomorphism, which it neither sees as a cognitive error, nor as a sign of immaturity. Rather it considers that this common human tendency, which is hypothesized to have evolved because it favored cooperation among early humans, can be used today to facilitate social interactions between humans and a new type of cooperative and interactive agents - social robots. This approach leads social robotics to focus research on the engineering of robots that activate anthropomorphic (...) projections in users. The objective is to give robots "social presence" and "social behaviors" that are sufficiently credible for human users to engage in comfortable and potentially long-lasting relations with these machines. This choice of ’applied anthropomorphism’ as a research methodology exposes the artifacts produced by social robotics to ethical condemnation: social robots are judged to be a "cheating" technology, as they generate in users the illusion of reciprocal social and affective relations. This article takes position in this debate, not only developing a series of arguments relevant to philosophy of mind, cognitive sciences, and robotic AI, but also asking what social robotics can teach us about anthropomorphism. On this basis, we propose a theoretical perspective that characterizes anthropomorphism as a basic mechanism of interaction, and rebuts the ethical reflections that a priori condemns "anthropomorphism-based" social robots. To address the relevant ethical issues, we promote a critical experimentally based ethical approach to social robotics, "synthetic ethics," which aims at allowing humans to use social robots for two main goals: self-knowledge and moral growth. (shrink)

The missing ingredients in efforts to develop neural networks and artificial intelligence (AI) that can emulate human intelligence have been the evolutionary processes of performing tasks at increased orders of hierarchical complexity. Stacked neural networks based on the Model of Hierarchical Complexity could emulate evolution's actual learning processes and behavioral reinforcement. Theoretically, this should result in stability and reduce certain programming demands. The eventual success of such methods begs questions of humans' survival in the face of androids of superior (...) intelligence and physical composition. These raise future moral questions worthy of speculation. (shrink)

Evolutionary theory has yet to offer a detailed model of the complex transitions from a living system of one design to another of more advanced, or simply different, design. Hidden within the writings of evolution's expositors is an implicit appeal to AI-like processes operating within the "cosmic machine" that has hitherto been evolving the plethora of functional living systems we observe. In these writings, there is disturbingly little understanding of the deep problems involved, resting as they do in the (...) very heart of AI. The end-state requirements for a system, device, or "machine" with intelligence capable of design are examined. The representational power must be sufficient to support analogical thought, an operation demanding transformations of events in imagery, in turn a function of perception, both dependent on a non-differentiable flow of time. The operational dynamics of the device must inherit this fundamental property of the dynamically transforming matter-field. Whether the evolutionary mechanisms or algorithmics thus far envisioned by biology or AI are coordinate with such requirements is left seriously in doubt. (shrink)

This study analyzes predominant themes and disciplinary and methodological trends in academic integrity and misconduct research. It utilizes bibliometric analysis to explore prevalent themes and interdisciplinary intersections within discussions based on Scopus metadata. R Studio, which uses _biblioshiny_ software, is employed to visualize trends. The results indicate the presence of 769 final documents (627 on academic integrity and 142 on academic misconduct) related to the research focus up to 2023. Visual representations show complex relationships and theme changes. The analysis uncovers (...) connections between academic integrity and misconduct, emphasizing criteria such as plagiarism and the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Distinct thematic clusters emerge, showcasing diverse dimensions and the impact of AI on misconduct. Interconnected research endeavors underscore dominant themes like cheating and ethical considerations. Thematic evolution reflects shifts from integrity-misconduct dichotomies to emergent issues like online fraud. Disciplinary contributions highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the discourse, drawing insights from social sciences, medicine, arts, business, psychology, and computer sciences. The detailed systematic literature review and survey design, which are dominant in research on academic integrity and misconduct, help build audience confidence. Some insights into academic integrity and misconduct via typical categories or terms have also been illustrated for the insightful reader. (shrink)

This article deals with the links between the enaction paradigm and artificial intelligence. Enaction is considered a metaphor for artificial intelligence, as a number of the notions which it deals with are deemed incompatible with the phenomenal field of the virtual. After explaining this stance, we shall review previous works regarding this issue in terms of artificial life and robotics. We shall focus on the lack of recognition of co-evolution at the heart of these approaches. We propose to explicitly (...) integrate the evolution of the environment into our approach in order to refine the ontogenesis of the artificial system, and to compare it with the enaction paradigm. The growing complexity of the ontogenetic mechanisms to be activated can therefore be compensated by an interactive guidance system emanating from the environment. This proposition does not however, resolve that of the relevance of the meaning created by the machine (sense-making). Such reflections lead us to integrate human interaction into this environment in order to construct relevant meaning in terms of participative artificial intelligence. This raises a number of questions with regards to setting up an enactive interaction. The article concludes by exploring a number of issues, thereby enabling us to associate current approaches with the principles of morphogenesis, guidance, the phenomenology of interactions and the use of minimal enactive interfaces in setting up experiments which will deal with the problem of artificial intelligence in a variety of enaction-based ways. (shrink)

AI’s new ability to create artworks is seen as a major challenge to today’s understanding of art. There is a strong tension between people who predict that AI will replace artists and critics who claim that AI art will never be art. Furthermore, recent studies have documented a negative bias towards AI art. This paper provides a philosophical explanation for this negative bias, based on our shared understanding of the ontological differences between objects. We argue that our perception of art (...) depends on our understanding of the context of its creation: human-made art is experienced as an interplay between the artist and nature. In AI-generated art, this interplay is either absent or minimised. We conclude that the displacement of the “human factor” in art will not lead to an evolution of art, but to the end of art. (shrink)

Due to their self-learning and evolutionary character, AI (Artificial Intelligence) systems are more prone to unintended consequences and more difficult to control than traditional sociotechnical systems. To deal with this, machine ethicists have proposed to build moral (reasoning) capacities into AI systems by designing artificial moral agents. I argue that this may well lead to more, rather than less, unintended consequences and may decrease, rather than increase, human control over such systems. Instead, I suggest, we should bring AI systems under (...) meaningful human control by formulating a number of meta-values for their evolution. Amongst others, this requires responsible experimentation with AI systems, which may neither guarantee full control nor the prevention of all undesirable consequences, but nevertheless ensures that AI systems, and their evolution, do not get out of control. (shrink)

This article seeks to understand why femininity seems to be often present in artificial intelligence and tackle the questions that arise when this phenomenon is subject to closer inspection. It draws on a previous study on the relationship between gender and AI, complemented by an analysis of digital assistants such as Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant and Siri that reveals how these entities tend to be feminized through their anthropomorphization, the tasks that they perform and their behavioural traits. Furthering this discussion, (...) this article addresses current trends of development of digital assistants and their stance towards gender, considering the functions or features that are being prioritized in AI evolution. It then focuses on the main questions raised by researchers and academics when examining the phenomenon and confronts these views with discussions around the feminization of AI in the context of online media coverage. This debate also highlights how common conceptions of AI and its portrayals of gender are influenced by bodies of fiction. Finally, the project Conversations with ELIZA seeks to comment on this phenomenon by ironically exposing and reinforcing common stereotypes and gender assumptions. In this manner, this study seeks to incite reflection on how artificial intelligence is reflecting our social and cultural views back to us. (shrink)

The rapid digital transformation driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping innovation and operational efficiency across industries. As autonomous AI systems are becoming prevalent, they significantly influence traditional business models, societal norms, and legal frameworks. AI technologies are evolving beyond mere tools to become independent economic agents capable of generating assets, making decisions, commercializing products and services, and being accountable for their actions. This evolution requires a reassessment of traditional concepts of corporate and moral personhood, particularly as AI-driven businesses (...) need to operate inside conventional legal frameworks. This paper explores the rise of entirely AI-driven entities with fully autonomous decision-making processes, advocating for the legal status of artificial personhood. It underscores the need for an ethical and regulatory framework to ensure these entities will proliferate and operate for human progress with integrity and responsibility. (shrink)

Humans are driving the planet toward catastrophe, and yet humans are the only species capable of taking positive actions on a global scale to prevent collapse. For N. Katherine Hayles, human hubris and the anthropocentrism that underlies it is one of the main drivers of our current planetary crises. So, if we are to take action to save the planet, we urgently need to re-think basic assumptions about agency, decision-making, control, and our relations to nonhuman and artificial cognizers. In Bacteria (...) to AI, Hayles develops an integrated cognitive framework (ICF) that includes humans, nonhuman lifeforms, and some computational media, including artificial intelligence. Bacteria to AI analyzes how the first-order emergences of physical phenomena, multicellularity, and technics are now interacting together to create second-order emergences that greatly accelerate technical developments. The book explores these entanglements through case studies ranging from gene editing to autopoiesis and Gaia theory, bacteria and xenobots to artificial intelligence. Spanning evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, and contemporary literature, Bacteria to AI recognizes the risks of contemporary technologies but insists a positive way forward, with ICF at its core, is possible for us and for the more than human world. (shrink)

The article responds to the recent evolution in AI judiciary, especially as presented in China. The authors compare the basic methodological background of Western and Eastern legal systems, concluding that the West is rather inclined to post-positivist methodology in law, which seems incompatible with the full use of AI in legal decision-making. In China, with its more pragmatic approach, the actual process of decision-making might be closer to a new form of technological legal positivism, distinct from Western trends in (...) jurisprudence. Finally, various forms of applicability of AI in law and judiciary are pondered upon, so as to use at least some positive aspects of AI in this sector—albeit with reservations regarding the decision-making proper. (shrink)

It has become fashionable to worry about the development of superintelligent AI that results in the destruction of humanity. This worry is not without merit; but it may be overstated. This paper explores some previously undiscussed reasons to be optimistic that; even if superintelligent AI does arise; it will not destroy us. These have to do with the possibility that a superintelligent AI will become mired in skeptical worries that its superintelligence cannot help it to solve. I argue that superintelligent (...) AIs may lack the psychological idiosyncracies that allow humans to act in the face of skeptical problems; and so as a result they may become paralyzed in the face of these problems in a way that humans are not. (shrink)

In affective neuroscience, constructivist models are acutely influenced by the modern technological evolution, which underwrites an ongoing epistemological substitution of techne for episteme. Evidenced symptomatically in the influence of artificial intelligence (AI), affective artefacts, these models inform an ontological incursion of techne seen to coincide with posthumanist aspirations and anthropology. It is from the perspective of this neuroscientific techne that posthumanism views the human being as increasingly ill adapted to the modern technological civilization, which, conversely, is understood to require (...) a technical governance of the sort envisioned through AI. Among the projects thought necessary for implementing this framework is a recasting of the human emotional spectrum. Revealed through its techne recasting, however, are explanatory commitments to a metaphysic of extrinsic and contiguous causes, where malleability is ontologically constitutive. Aligned with posthumanist assertions malleability is invoked to argue for a rapid advance of the human form, normatively driven by enlightenment ideals. The ontological claim, however, dispenses with the stability of an a priori, intersubjective and interrelational metaphysical form that undergirds the emotions, leading to the collapse of a definitional anthropos. This paper will argue that techne models of the emotions selectively endorse philosophy of science commitments, thereby introducing a normative inversion that deconstructs the notion of anthropology pursued in posthumanist aspirations. (shrink)

The current assumptions of knowledge acquisition brought about the crisis in the reproducibility of experiments. A complementary perspective should account for the specific causality characteristic of life by integrating past, present, and future. A “second Cartesian revolution,” informed by and in awareness of anticipatory processes, should result in scientific methods that transcend the theology of determinism and reductionism. In our days, science, itself an expression of anticipatory activity, makes possible alternative understandings of reality and its dynamics. For this purpose, the (...) study advances G-complexity for defining and comparing decidable and undecidable knowledge. AI and related computational expressions of knowledge could benefit from the awareness of what distinguishes the dynamics of life from any other expressions of change. (shrink)

We suggest that as people move to construe robots as social agents, interact with them, and treat them as capable of social ties, they might develop (close) relationships with them. We then ask what kind of relationships can people form with bots, what functions can bots fulfill, and what are the societal and moral implications of such relationships.

Avec son livre récent, Locke and French materialism (Oxford 1991), John Yolton - connu de longue date pour avoir le premier focalisé le contexte théologique et moral du nouveau 'way of ideas' chez Locke - a donné le signal de départ d'une exploration de la place de Locke dans la lutte philosophique en France au dix-septième siècle. Prenant acte que le thème, pourtant majeur, des idées innées dans la réception française de Locke n'a pas encore reçu l'attention qu'il mérite, le (...) présent livre poursuit une analyse approfondie de la fortune de la polémique contre les idées innées chez les philosophes français, de Jean Le Clerc (1688) à Saint-Lambert (1801). Après une présentation du scénario mis en place au dix-septième siècle (Descartes, Malebranche, Locke), on suit dans un ordre chronologique l'évolution de la critique des idées innées chez les philosophes français jusqu'à la defense d'une tabula rasaabsolue à la fin du siècle (Helvétius, d'Holbach), passant par plusieurs étapes qui marquent chacune à la fois un aboutissement et un nouveau point de départ dans la radicalisation progressive du leitmotiv lancé par Locke: considérées comme le pilier même de la métaphysique chrétienne, les idées innées sont dénoncées de façon de plus en plus radicale, d'abord dans le Refuge, ensuite en France sur une route jalonnée d'affaires' (Voltaire 1734, Prades 1751, Helvétius 1758, d'Holbach 1770). Or, si la polémique contre les idées innées semble évoluer selon une logique interne nécessaire, ce livre dévoile en même temps l'existence d'une critique des idées innées plus proche de la cause apologétique par son souci de préserver l'immatérialité de l'âme, l'existence de Dieu et celle d'une loi naturelle (morale) objective et absolue. Enfin, on voit par les résultats de cette enquête comment, aujourd'hui, le débat entre l'inné et l'acquis, toujours d'actualité, trouve ses origines dans l'histoire retracée ici - comme d'ailleurs plus généralement la sécularisation et ses différents avatars, matérialisme, nihilisme, athéisme. Remerciements. (shrink)

In some languages every statement must contain a specification of the type of evidence on which it is based: for example, whether the speaker saw it, or heard it, or inferred it from indirect evidence, or learnt it from someone else. This grammatical reference to information source is called 'evidentiality', and is one of the least described grammatical categories. Evidentiality systems differ in how complex they are: some distinguish just two terms (eyewitness and noneyewitness, or reported and everything else), while (...) others have six or even more terms. Evidentiality is a category in its own right, and not a subcategory of epistemic or some other modality, nor of tense-aspect. Every language has some way of referring to the source of information, but not every language has grammatical evidentiality. In English expressions such as I guess, they say, I hear that, the alleged are not obligatory and do not constitute a grammatical system. Similar expressions in other languages may provide historical sources for evidentials. True evidentials, by contrast, form a grammatical system. In the North Arawak language Tariana an expression such as "the dog bit the man" must be augmented by a grammatical suffix indicating whether the event was seen, or heard, or assumed, or reported. This book provides the first exhaustive cross-linguistic typological study of how languages deal with the marking of information source. Examples are drawn from over 500 languages from all over the world, several of them based on the author's original fieldwork. Professor Aikhenvald also considers the role evidentiality plays in human cognition, and the ways in which evidentiality influences human perception of the world.. This is an important book on an intriguing subject. It will interest anthropologists, cognitive psychologists and philosophers, as well as linguists. (shrink)

The study of introspection has, up until now, been predominantly human-centric, with regrettably little attention devoted to the question of whether introspection might exist in non-humans, such as animals and artificial intelligence (AI), and what distinct forms it might take. In their target article, Kammerer and Frankish (this issue) aim to address this oversight by offering a non-anthropocentric framework for understanding introspection that could be used to address these questions. However, their discussions on introspection in animals and AIs were quite (...) brief. In this commentary, we will build on their suggestions to offer some methodological guidance for how future research into introspection in animals and AIs might proceed. (shrink)

Janet Lee Mitchell. Conscious Evolution. Ballantine Books, 1990, 210 pages.

The Salivaomics Knowledge Base (SKB) is designed to serve as a computational infrastructure that can permit global exploration and utilization of data and information relevant to salivaomics. SKB is created by aligning (1) the saliva biomarker discovery and validation resources at UCLA with (2) the ontology resources developed by the OBO (Open Biomedical Ontologies) Foundry, including a new Saliva Ontology (SALO). We define the Saliva Ontology (SALO; http://www.skb.ucla.edu/SALO/) as a consensus-based controlled vocabulary of terms and relations dedicated to the salivaomics (...) domain and to saliva-related diagnostics following the principles of the OBO (Open Biomedical Ontologies) Foundry. The Saliva Ontology is an ongoing exploratory initiative. The ontology will be used to facilitate salivaomics data retrieval and integration across multiple fields of research together with data analysis and data mining. The ontology will be tested through its ability to serve the annotation ('tagging') of a representative corpus of salivaomics research literature that is to be incorporated into the SKB. Background Saliva (oral fluid) is an emerging biofluid for non-invasive diagnostics used in the detection of human diseases. The need to advance saliva research is strongly emphasized by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), and is included in the NIDCR's 2004- 2009 expert panel long-term research agenda [1]. The ability to monitor health status, disease onset, progression, recurrence and treatment outcome through noninvasive means is highly important to advancing health care management. Saliva is a perfect medium to be explored for personalized individual medicine including diagnostics, offering a non-invasive, easy to obtain means for detecting and monitoring diseases. Saliva testing potentially allows the patient to collect their own saliva samples at home, yielding convenience for the patient and savings in health costs, and facilitating multiple sampling. Specimen collection is less objectionable to patients and easier in children and elderly individuals. Due to these advantages. (shrink)

This paper establishes several algebraic embedding theorems, each of which asserts that a certain kind of residuated structure can be embedded into a richer one. In almost all cases, the original structure has a compatible involution, which must be preserved by the embedding. The results, in conjunction with previous findings, yield separative axiomatizations of the deducibility relations of various substructural formal systems having double negation and contraposition axioms. The separation theorems go somewhat further than earlier ones in the literature, which (...) either treated fewer subsignatures or focussed on the conservation of theorems only. (shrink)

Why do people comply with coronavirus disease 2019 public health guidance? This study considers cultural-psychological foundations of variation in beliefs about motivations for such compliance. Specifically, we focused on beliefs about two sources of prosocial motivation: desire to protect others and obligation to society. Across two studies, we observed that the relative emphasis on the desire to protect others as an explanation for compliance was greater in the United States settings associated with cultural ecologies of abstracted independence than in Chinese (...) settings associated with cultural ecologies of embedded interdependence. We observed these patterns for explanations of psychological experience of both others and self, and for compliance with mandates for both social distancing and face masks. Discussion of results considers both practical implications for motivating compliance with public health guidance and theoretical implications for denaturalizing prevailing accounts of prosocial motivation. (shrink)

L'expérience de théorisation d'Edgar Morin a été, pour nous sociologues, bien plus qu'un témoignage exemplaire. Elle a aidé à entamer un parcours épistémologique ; la discipline sociologique peut, en effet, apparaître comme une partition à plusieurs voix au travers d'une discussion non seulement sociologique, mais aussi, anthropologique et philosophique, et ce, en trois temps : la rupture, la construction et la constatation. Ce livre est, ainsi, conçu comme un "aide à penser", d'une part, la genèse de la sociologie, en revisitant (...) les auteurs canoniques (Marx, Durkheim, Weber) et les théories sociologiques contemporaines, et, d'autre part, la complexité des défis culturels, sociaux et politiques, dans nos sociétés. L'expérience d'une pensée aussi rigoureuse que la complexité ne peut se faire par procuration. Il fallait contribuer à l'initiation à la sociologie et beaucoup d'attention pour oser penser par soi-même. L'ouvrage porte sur des problèmes de "théorie", mais tous s'appuient sur des données ethnographiques (enquêtes de terrain). Enfin, l'ouvrage d'Ali Aït Abdelmalek s'inscrit dans son projet de création, à l'Université de Rennes 2, d'un Groupement d'intérêt scientifique "Institut de la complexité : Territoire, Identité, Patrimoine et Politique", en collaboration avec la Fondation Edgar Morin."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

This volume reaches beyond the controversy surrounding the teaching and learning of evolution in the United States, specifically in regard to the culture, politics, and beliefs found in the Southeast. The editors argue that despite a deep history of conflict in the region surrounding evolution, there is a wealth of evolution research taking place—from biodiversity in species to cultural evolution and human development. In fact, scientists, educators, and researchers from around the United States have found their (...) niche in the South, where biodiversity is high, culture runs deep, and the pace is just a little bit slower. (shrink)

Darwinian Evolution and Classical Liberalism brings together a collection of new essays that examine the multifaceted ferment between Darwinian biology and classical liberalism.

Dans les débats classiques des xvie et xviie siècles, la représentation est considérée avant tout comme une question rhétorique et psychologique, mais à la fin du xviie siècle, elle devient une question épistémologique. Cet ouvrage explore le contexte de cette transformation et ses sources.

There is a need recognized by the National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research and the National Cancer Institute to advance basic, translational and clinical saliva research. The goal of the Salivaomics Knowledge Base (SKB) is to create a data management system and web resource constructed to support human salivaomics research. To maximize the utility of the SKB for retrieval, integration and analysis of data, we have developed the Saliva Ontology and SDxMart. This article reviews the informatics advances in saliva (...) diagnostics made possible by the Saliva Ontology and SDxMart. (shrink)

In this comprehensive history of evolutionism, C. Leon Harris has combined primary source readings with clear, pertinent background information, to provide a solid basic understanding of the ways scientists have arrived at today's views of evolution. Harris describes the major contributors to the theory of evolutionism, placing each in the context of the general cultural influences to which he was exposed. Each chapter also contains an explanation of the philosophical basis of the scientific approach of the period in question. (...) A lengthy bibliography provides direction for further reading on this important and timely subject. (shrink)

Evolution and Religion in American Education shines a light into one of America’s dark educational corners, exposing the regressive pedagogy that can invade science classrooms when school boards and state overseers take their eyes off the ball. It sets out to examine the development of college students’ attitudes towards biological evolution through their lives. The fascinating insights provided by interviewing students about their world views adds up to a compelling case for additional scrutiny of the way young people’s (...) educational experiences unfold as they consider—and indeed in some cases reject—one of science’s strongest and most cogent theoretical constructs. Inevitably, open discussion and consideration of the theory of evolution can chip away at the mental framework constructed by Creationists, eroding the foundations of their faith. The conceptual battleground is so fraught with logical challenges to Creationist dogma that in a number of cases students’ exposure to such dangerous ideas is actively prevented. This book provides a detailed map of this astonishing struggle in today’s America—a struggle many had thought was done and dusted with the onset of the Enlightenment. (shrink)

It is proved that the variety of relevant disjunction lattices has the finite embeddability property. It follows that Avron's relevance logic RMImin has a strong form of the finite model property, so it has a solvable deducibility problem. This strengthens Avron's result that RMImin is decidable.

We describe the rationale for an application ontology covering the domain of human body fluids that is designed to facilitate representation, reuse, sharing and integration of diagnostic, physiological, and biochemical data, We briefly review the Blood Ontology (BLO), Saliva Ontology (SALO) and Kidney and Urinary Pathway Ontology (KUPO) initiatives. We discuss the methods employed in each, and address the project of using them as starting point for a unified body fluids ontology resource. We conclude with a description of how the (...) body fluids ontology initiative may provide support to basic and translational science. (shrink)

Evolution: a closer look -- Forgotten truths -- Complexity-consciousness: law or myth? -- In search of creative union -- Omega hypothesis -- God of evolution -- Biblical fall and evolutionist ascent -- New Eschaton in historical perspective -- Socialization and super-organism -- New religion -- Teilhard de Chardin: biographical facts -- Riddle of Genesis 2.4-5.

This essay views Christian doctrines of the atonement in the light of evolution and sociobiology. It argues that most of the doctrines are false because they use a false premise, the historicity of Adam and the Fall. However, two doctrines are not false on those grounds: Abelard’s idea that Jesus’ life is an example and Athanasius’s concept that the atonement changes human nature. Employing evolution’s and sociobiology’s concepts of the egocentric and ethnocentric nature of humanity and the synergy (...) between genes and environments to produce a "nature," this essay shows that these two doctrines can be amalgamated to make sense of the atonement in the late twentieth century. (shrink)